Poems ...

A long and melancholy mew, Saluting his poetic ears, Consoled him and dispell'd his fears; He left his bed, he trod the floor, He ‘gan in haste the draw’rs explore, The lowest first, and without stop The rest in order to the top. For 'tis a truth well-known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it come to light, In ev'ry cranny but the right. Forth skipp'd the cat, not now replete As erst with airy self-conceit, Nor in her own fond apprehension A theme for all the world's attention ; But modest, sober, cur'd of all Her notions hyperbolical, And wishing for a place of rest Anything rather than a chest. Then stepp'd the poet into bed With this reflection in his head.

YARDLEY OAK.

URVIVOR sole, and hardly such, of all That once liv'd here, thy brethren, at my birth

(Since which I number threescore winters past), A shatter'd vet'ran, hollow-trunk'd perhaps, As now, and with excoriate forks deform, Relics of ages 1 could a mind, imbued With truth from Heaven, created thing adore, I might with reverence kneel, and worship thee.

It seems idolatry with some excuse, When our forefather Druids in their oaks Imagined sanctity. The conscience, yet Unpurified by an authentic act Of amnesty, the meed of blood divine, Lov'd not the light, but, gloomy, into gloom Of thickest shades, like Adam after taste Of fruit proscribed, as to a refuge, fled. By thee I might correct, erroneous oft, The clock of history, facts and events Timing more punctual, unrecorded facts Recov'ring, and misstated o right— Desp'rate attempt, till trees shall speak again Time made thee what thou wast, king of the woods; And Time hath made thee what thou art—a cave For owls to roost in. Once thy spreading boughs O'erhung the champaign; and the num'rous flocks That grazed it, stood beneath that ample cope Uncrowded, yet safe-shelter'd from the storm. No flock frequents thee now. Thou hast outlived Thy popularity, and art become (Unless verse rescue thee awhile) a thing Forgotten, as the foliage of thy youth. hile thus through all the stages thou hast push'd Of treeship—first a seedling, hid in grass: Then twig; then sapling; and, as cent'ry roll'd Slow after century, a giant bulk Of girth enormous, with moss-cushion'd root Upheaved above the soil, and sides emboss'd With prominent wens globose—till at the last The rottenness, which time is charged to inflict On other mighty ones, found also thee, What exhibitious various hath the world Witness'd of mutability in all That we account most durable below 1

Change is the diet on which we subsist, Created changeable, and change at last Destroys them. Skies uncertain now the heat Transmitting cloudless, and the solar beam Now quenching in a boundless sea of clouds— Calm and alternate storm, moisture and drought, Invigorate by turns the springs of life In all that live, plant, animal, and man, And in conclusion mar them. Nature's threads, Fine passing thought e'en in her coarsest works, Delight in agitation, yet sustain, The force that agitates, not unimpair'd ; But, worn by frequent impulse, to the cause Of their best tone their dissolution owe. Thought cannot spend itself, comparing still The great and little of thy lot, thy growth From almost nullity into a state Of matchless grandeur, and declension thence, Slow, into such magnificent decay. Time was, when, settling on thy leaf, a fly Could shake thee to thy root—and time has been When tempests could not. At thy firmest age Thou hadst within thy bole solid contents, Thoot have ribb'd the sides and plank'd the ec Of some flagg'd admiral; and tortuous arms, The shipwright's darling treasure, didst present To the four-quarter'd winds, robust and bold, Warp'd into tough knee-timber, many a load But the axe spared thee. In those thriftier days Oaks fell not, hewn by thousands to supply The bottomless demands of contest, waged For senatorial honours. Thus to time The task was left to whittle thee away With his sly scythe, whose ever nibbling edge,

Noiseless, an atom, and an atom more, Disjoining from the rest, has, unobserved, Achieved a labour, which had far and wide, By man perform’d, made all the forest ring. Embowell'd now, and of thy ancient self Possessing naught but the scoop'd rind, that seem'd A huge throat calling to the clouds for drink, Which it would give in rivulets to thy root, Thou temptest none, but rather much forbidd'st The feller's toil, which thou could'st ill requite. Yet is thy root sincere, sound as the rock, A quarry of stout spurs, and knotted fangs, Which, crook'd into a thousand whimsies, clasp The stubborn soil, and hold thee still erect. So stands a kingdom whose foundation yet Fails not, in virtue and in wisdom laid. Though all the superstructure, by the tooth Pulverised of venality, a shell Stands now, and semblance only of itself I Thine arms have left thee. Winds have rent them off Long since, the rovers of the forest wild, [left With bow and shaft, have burnt them. Some have A splinter'd stump, bleach'd to a snowy white; And some, memorial none where once they grew. But life still lingers in thee, and puts forth Proof not contemptible of what she can, Even where death predominates. The spring Finds thee not less alive to her sweet force, Than yonder upstarts of the neighb'ring wood, So much thy juniors, who their birth received Half a millennium since the date of thine. But since, although well qualified by age To teach, no spirit dwells in thee, nor voice May be expected from thee, seated here

On thy distorted root, with hearers none, Or prompter, save the scene, I will perform Myself the oracle, and will discourse In my own ear such matter as I may, , One man alone, the father of us all, Drew not his life from woman; never gazed, With mute unconsciousness of what he saw, On all around him ; learn’d not by degrees, Nor owed articulation to his ear; But, moulded by his Maker into man, At once upstood intelligent, survey'd All creatures, with precision understood Their purport, uses, properties, assign'd To each his name significant, and, fill'd With love and wisdom, render'd back to Heav'n In praise harmonious the first air he drew. He was excused the penalties of dull Minority. No tutor charged his hand With the thought-tracing quill, or tasked his mind With problems. History, not wanted yet, Lean'd on her elbow watching Time, whose course, Eventful, should supply her with a theme.

ON A PLANT OF VIRGIN'S-BOWER, DESIGNED TO COWER A GARDEN-SEAT.

HRIVE, gentle plant 1 and weave a bow'r For Mary and for me, And deck with many a splendid flow'r Thy foliage large and free.